Self-creation through Self-limitation: Nietzsche on the Poetization of the Self in the second part of Human, All Too Human

Lebeau-Henry, Charles
(2019) Nietzsche and Humanity: (Anti-) Humanism, Posthumanism, Transhumanism (conference de la Friedrich Nietzsche Society) — Location: Université de Tilburg (12.September.2019)

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In the second part of Human, All Too Human, Nietzsche stresses the importance of the task of the poet, who should aspire to “help to create the future” by “tirelessly portraying” (fortdichten) the “great, noble soul” as harmoniously embodied in the modern world (Mixed Opinions and Maxims, §99). The way forward for art, he argues, lies in the production of models, which should serve as examples and stimulate “imitation and envy”. A sort of joyful serenity should also characterize these models, who would be “protected from the heat and ardor of the passions” (Id.). Moreover, it seems that the proper models would be the artists themselves (Ibid, §174). This classical conception of art, which emphasizes self-limitation, be it in the limited variation of its themes or in the equanimity of its characters, paints a picture of the artist far removed from the image of the exuberant and overflowing art of the Übermensch one can glean from some of Nietzsche’s later writings. In this presentation, I will attempt to clarify what it means for Nietzsche to exhort the artist to self-artistry through self-limitation. Can such a limitation truly foster progress, or at least some positive change? Or is Nietzsche perhaps asking the artist to stifle the destabilizing power of her or his artistic expression? To address this question, I will compare what Nietzsche has to say in Human, All Too Human and in the fragments of this period of different artists – Wagner, Goethe, Sterne, and Chopin, amongst others – on the subject of their relationship to this classical self- control. I will also turn my attention to the metaphorical attitudes – swimming, dancing, and gliding – that are used to describe them, the complex interplay of which Paul Franco (2011) has already highlighted. I will argue that this self-limitation is an answer to a larger problem that Nietzsche attempts to tackle in the second part of Human, All Too Human , that of achieving a “cooling of the mind” that would allow for knowledge and wisdom to coexist in an individual (Ansell-Pearson, 2018). This difficult equilibrium, which requires both an unflinching eye and a strong capacity for detachment, would be best achieved with the help of art, according to Nietzsche. Finally, I will try to assess whether such an attitude can really serve as “signpost for the future” (MOM, §99), or whether it leads to a withdrawal in the aestheticized self.
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Lebeau-Henry, C. (2019). Self-creation through Self-limitation: Nietzsche on the Poetization of the Self in the second part of Human, All Too Human. Nietzsche and Humanity: (Anti-) Humanism, Posthumanism, Transhumanism (conference de la Friedrich Nietzsche Society), Université de Tilburg. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/98988